The field of the invention is personal air sampling devices which can be worn or carried by workers to monitor air quality during a work shift.
Personal air sampling devices are carried by an individual as he performs his normal duties. At the end of a work shift, an air contaminant collection device in the air sampler is removed and inspected to determine the amount of airborne particulate matter or gases to which the individual was exposed. Prior air sampling instruments contain small battery operated air pumps which continuously draw air through the contaminant collection device during the work shift.
The accuracy of prior air sampling devices is dependent on the volume of sampled air delivered by the pump. In early devices a rotameter was calibrated at the beginning and end of a work shift and an average air flow rate was approximated for the entire shift. The volume of sampled air was then calculated using this average air flow rate. Such prior systems were not accurate and, when employed as part of a continuous monitoring program, considerable manpower is required to calibrate the devices and perform the calculations.
More recently, attempts have been made to increase the accuracy of personal air sampling devices. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,832 for example, a specially designed air pump is used which draws a fixed volume of air through the filter during each stroke. The strokes are counted and employed to calculate the total volume of the air sample during the work shift. In other commercially available devices, the pump is controlled to produce a constant flow rate throughout the sampling time period.